•CT 




Glasv 
Book. 



n 



SECJN^ JOPY. 



^£C 22 1898 






«,v 



**Arrayed with the Sun 



THE TWELFTH CHAPTER 
OF THE REVELATION 



99 



By SARAH CROSSE 



Boston 

THE EVERETT PRESS 

1898 



1 






LC Control Number 



88134 

Copyrighted 1898 
By Sarah Crosse 




tinp96 027557 






By the same author 
• The Heart of the Moral Law ' 







THE TWELFTH CHAPTER 
OF THE REVELATION. 




"LTHOUGH the authority of the Rev- 
elation, which is ascribed to John the 
Divine, has been challenged by va- 
rious writers, yet, without doubt, the 
..; hor of the Fourth Gospel and the three Epis- 
• ■ , that were likewise attributed to this well-be- 
' ^d Disciple of Jesus, is the same with that 
is technically known as the Apocalypse, 
rom the latter, if one have never perceived 
himself through his own rendering of JesusL 
... icn jg, the obviousness of symbolism con- 
vi ices him that John thoroughly understood the 
Master's teaching to have been presented en- 
tirely in this way, evep.:::to the object-lessons 
the. n selves. 

John saw — what many ancient and modern 
scholars seem to have wholly lost from view, be- 
cause of their pursuit of the mere mechanics of 
knowledge — that, in order to reach the natural 



4 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

in man, and thereby to overthrow the supernat- 
ural, he, too, must quicken in man, just as the 
Master did, man's true perception, from which 
he seemed to be a lonely wanderer. John, ac- 
cordingly, also began with that foundation — the 
Symbol — which was, after all, although through 
perversion, likewise the foundation of all race 
superstition. 

It is worse than wasted time which is expended 
in disputing the fact that the real desire of man 
was then, as it also is now, to understand the 
Creative Principle. One often forgets, however, 
that he is dealing with symbols alone in his daily 
living ; and, more than this, man rarely seems to 
remember that God Himself, the confessed 
Creative Principle, is but a Sign — a Sign, how- 
ever, which assuredly bespeaks itself in each 
and every thought of man, in each and every 
created thing. Moreover, it is true that when 
one keeps this knowledge steadfastly expres- 
sive he will regard each object of his sight rever- 
ently, since he will then know it to be the Sign 
in Heaven, which God Himself has absolutely 
imaged through his own sight. He will then no 
longer allow a Dragon-mind to cast an objective 
shadow through his fancy, which would conse- 
quently obstruct his true vision. Instead, 
through his own activity, he will seek for the 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 5 

Power of the Throne from the Presence within 
himself. 

This Revelation of Truth through John did 
not find either his ear or his heart absent — 
turned — from the Christ. He was indeed a 
Blessed John, a Divine John, when all personality 
was swept from his consciousness, leaving for 
him but the " house empty, swept, and gar- 
nished," since he was then fully cognizant of 
the lesson which his own experience alone had 
taught him. 

He had not only heard the Word, but he had 
also lived it, and was now declaring to others, 
by means of symbols, the Story of Life as it re- 
vealed itself through him. This Story, in order 
to express itself directly, should be quickly told, 
and he therefore aptly chose from the signs, 
which man himself offered him, those which 
would reveal to man the One Sign of Heaven, 
God, the Creative Principle, which he, John, 
termed Woman. As typical of characteristics, 
representing nations as well as qualities. Wom- 
an had served as a Judaic symbol. Doubtless 
for this reason John employed that term to 
which his own race was accustomed when he 
selected Woman as the Symbol of the Creative 
Power. Nevertheless, this same sign had often 
reversed the meaning of Life with his people, 



6 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

since it had represented that which beguiled 
them and was, consequently, destructive. 

It may be truly said of John that he loved 
that which he saw. He saw God in Christ, in 
Jesus, and undoubtedly loved Him as the man- 
child which was ** caught up to God." But 
John loved God in the Universal. His Vision 
was simple and, therefore, straightforward. 
Hence a complex rendering of his own thought 
never caused him to swerve from the directness 
of the Divine Will into the tortuous mazes of 
selfish fancy. The Master had revealed him- 
self to John during the days of his own ministry, 
and the Crucifixion and Resurrection only 
served to unify John with the beloved Presence, 
when all personal desires were effaced by the 
clear Light in which he himself stood. His 
mother had desired place and power for him. 
Probably when she sought the Master to peti- 
tion him selfishly for the personal advancement 
of her two sons, John also had some ambition 
for himself ; but, in that moment when he heard 
the voice of Jesus saying to Mary, ^* Woman, 
behold thy son!" and to himself, *' Behold thy 
mother ! " the scales fell from his eyes, and his 
sight became single. From that moment he 
sought the redeeming way of Love only, al- 
though, at times, in his daily efforts with others, 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 7 

some latent antagonism might appear to assert 
itself ; but the uncovering of his Divine Nature 
revealed to him the Unity of the Heavenly 
Source, which he accordingly knew possessed, 
and was possessed by, all others. 

When one reads John impersonally, and 
therefore simply for the Light, the meaning of 
that which before seemed either hidden or 
vague becomes absolutely simple. The Spirit 
which animates the Twelfth Chapter of the 
Revelation is wholly impersonal, although each 
Son of Man will find it possible to interpret its 
meaning into his own daily manner of living, 
and, if he choose, apparently possible to reverse 
the Heavenly Result into personal significance. 
Nevertheless, it is true that the revealing is im- 
partially intended for the ear of each Son of 
God, as one will understand for himself if he 
seek to apply the full significance through the 
Universal rendering. This, however, can be 
done in the divinity of Love only. The fore- 
shadowing of the human affections — for they 
are never aught but a foreshadowing — should 
be actively imaged through the transfiguration 
of the human heart into the fearlessness of 
Eternal Love itself. Then one will cease to in- 
terpret the lesson physically, but, instead, will 
seek to construct his own perception of Life 



8 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

upon the individual basis — the indivisible — 
alone. 

While one continues to tread the devious way 
of personality, from either deliberate or indiffer- 
ent choice, the demoniac characteristics, which 
will then seem to occupy him, will translate the 
Universe into a line that is obviously antagonis- 
tic to the angelic, and these characteristics will 
also assume terrorizing shapes through his own 
distorted vision. Happy is the one who clearly 
perceives, from his own Beginning of Life, the 
Absolute Sign of Heaven — Woman — the 
Creative Power, eternally established within 
himself, without any contrary assertions or 
counter-claims of human sense. 

" And a great Sign appeared in Heaven : a 
Woman arrayed with the Sun and the Moon 
under her feet." 

This Woman herself is the full Sign of 
Heaven. She does not represent or define sex, 
as she possesses neither male nor female quali- 
ties or instincts. Being arrayed with all Light, 
she in herself expresses the Unity of Understand- 
ing. The Principle of Life is always Creative ; 
therefore this Woman is identical with the Crea- 
tive Principle. Clothed as she is with the Sun, 
— Luminous Sense, — she reveals herself to 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 9 

John with the moon under her feet, from which 
attitude we may observe that she reflects noth- 
ing of a borrowed Light, of a borrowed Sight, 
since all Light, all Sight, is consciously her own. 
She accordingly comprehends all there is to 
know, and her Sight likewise beholds all there is 
to see ; because it is, in itself, creative of all. 

" And upon her head a crown of twelve 
stars." 

The Absolute Concept of Life embraces all 
other concept of Life, despite the seeming fact 
that the objective ( the creation ) apparently 
divides this Concept into tortuous ways, instead 
of unifying itself, within itself, with all by its 
pursuit of Life through the one straight Way. 

The Sign which appeared in Heaven was 
assuredly Heaven itself, the Beginning of Crea- 
tive Sense, the only Beginning which, as Per- 
fect Thinking, ever occupies the virgin fresh- 
ness of the moment. It is a Concept which no 
division of human sense has ever obscured, and, 
best of all, which cannot be obscured. But, ac- 
cording to the. Parable of John, and also ac- 
cording to ancient allegory, these twelve stars 
upon the Head of Creative Intelligence — 
which, however, human mind alone defines 
there — appear to have changed the Creative 



I o The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation. 

Concept into a merely intellectual conception of 
the creation, and hence into doubt and uncer- 
tainty. 

The *' crown of twelve stars '' undoubtedly re- 
fers to the twelve constellations, which, for so 
long a time, governed the various peoples. 
Thus far the Parable has dealt only with the Ab- 
solute, which it assuredly continues to do, and 
consequently the Woman, as Creative Intelli- 
gence, interprets through Luminous Unity all 
that the constellations, in their supposed differ- 
ences of government, imposed upon man as his 
conception of their qualified power. Being ar- 
rayed with the Sun, Creative Principle, this Wom- 
an, therefore, naturally radiates all Sight and, 
as naturally, beholds that which reflects this 
Light. 

Yet the mere suggestion of some light other 
than the Perfect One, because of the creature's 
questions and doubts, proves in itself the crea- 
ture's denial of the Absolute Light. Therefore 
the creation that, in its True Place, its Real Be- 
ginning, possessed the Creative Power, of which 
it could not deprive itself, although it seemed to 
manifest this Power in contrary ways, but dimly 
saw its Light, which consequently appeared **a 
long way off." It thereby placed its governing 
power in the distant heavens, while it thus 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation. 1 1 

created for itself ** a far country/' The stars of 
Heaven became to it merely the indefinitely 
decimated effulgence of that which had repre- 
sented Woman, — the Creative Principle, — who, 
in her true estate, had been arrayed with the Sun, 
according to the creature's conception. To the 
creature, also, this arraying was natural. There- 
fore this was also the perfect Concept of Life for 
it, and, likewise, its Absolute Creative Power. 

We learn from ancient writers that it required 
centuries for man to place those constellations 
definitely, in order that they might cover every 
situation of human life, and also every solar, lu- 
nar, and stellar condition. More than this, 
they had likewise to meet all the requirements 
of the changes of season, producing the division 
of day into night, and of thereby performing 
the impossible, — of effacing Light with dark- 
ness. 

This differentiation vitally interested the 
more intellectual races of men. Each is accred- 
ited with a constructive thought in this ar- 
rangement of the heavens. Egyptian, Chal- 
dean, Greek, Roman, gave to this determination 
of the solar system an interest that was vital to 
each people. It is further recorded that the 
nomenclature of these signs excited a great deal 



1 2 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation. 

of rivalry among the different nations who ap- 
portioned to the constellations their various 
offices. 

These twelve constellations, however, ex- 
pressed in themselves all the signs of the Zodi- 
ac, a term which, it may be repeated here, sig- 
nifies, in the Greek, ^' a little animal." It is said 
that, according to the Chaldean interpretation 
of those signs, *' fragments of several distinct 
strata of thought appear to be imbedded in 
them ;" also that, ** from one point of view, they 
shadow forth the great epic of the human 
race ;" and again, that *' the universal solar 
myth claims a share in them." Venerable tra- 
ditions of the various races were brought into 
connection with them, and they also ** appeared 
to commemorate meteorological and astronom- 
ical events." 

The human race was supposed to have come 
into life under the sign of Taurus, which is the 
second sign, Aries being the first. There is, 
moreover, a marvellous interchangeability of 
meaning among the different race conceptions 
of the beginning of Life. While the Greeks be- 
lieved themselves to have come from Taurus, 
the Egyptians founded themselves upon Apis, 
which has the same significance as Taurus, 
Apis being the accredited father of Ptath, who, 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 13 

without doubt, derivatively corresponds to the 
Roman Vulcan. 

The first city is reputed to have been built in 
the third month and sign, Gemini, the fratricidal 
brothers, Romulus and Remus, then appearing, 
between whom and Cain and Abel there is be- 
lieved to be a legendary correspondence. 

When one considers the interpretation of 
these signs from their various aspects, as well 
as from the unity of standpoint so far as the 
meaning is concerned, the human wisdom of 
those ancients is obvious and, at first, startling. 
The significance of the first sign, Aries, — the 
Ram, — is indicative of sacrifice, and from this 
we may observe how well men then knew that 
sacrifice is the beginning as well as the end 
of all human conception of Life. It certainly 
has not needed these later centuries for the dem- 
onstration of that apparent fact. 

Yet some reference should be made to the 
last sign, Pisces, the Fish, which psychology 
would prove to be the beginning, instead of the 
ending, of the animal condition of Man, since 
the aquatic renders itself apparently into that 
which nearly corresponds to a preconceived 
condition with the creature that is presenting it- 
self through the slow processes of pregnancy. 
Still, man never achieves for himself anything 



1 4 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelatiofi, 

beyond the aquatic condition while he contin- 
ues to anticipate his presentation into a Life 
other than that enjoyed by him in the present 
moment. Such beginning and ending are mere- 
ly reversals, — the travail of delivering that 
which is not true, — while one continues to 
deny the Absolute Significance of Life through 
an interpretation of beginning and ending which 
is contrary to Truth. Therefore it should be 
remembered that, according to John, Woman — 
the all-engrossing Sign of Heaven — mani- 
fested the full determination of Knowledge, the 
indestructible Perception of All-being. 

The months of the year, which had once been 
differently divided, now, when this Parable of 
the Woman was given, numbered twelve lunar 
months. There were also twelve tribes of Is- 
rael, and, it may be observed, Jesus considered 
it wise for him to extend further the sacred 
meaning which was attached to this particular 
number. Nor did he do this for the purpose of 
leaving his Disciples under the bondage of in- 
creased superstition, but in order that enlighten- 
ment should sooner come to them. Doubtless, 
for this reason, he appointed twelve Disciples, 
well knowing the manner in which they them- 
selves would construe his choice of number. 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 15 

Then we shall interpret this symbolic utter- 
ance, ** and upon her head a crown of twelve 
stars/' to mean this : The Creative Principle of 
Being is the All-radiating Light, which com- 
prises all Knowledge, and illumines all crea- 
tures equally with this understanding of Life. 
All that can be said really to exist is the Crea- 
tive Sense, or Perception, which is assuredly a 
subjective at one, in its own Consciousness, 
with its objective. Man, however, seems to 
have slowly, instead of quickly, learned, if one 
consider the long human ages since his own ap- 
parent passing from Sight, that the objective, — 
the creation, — which should express the abso- 
lutely Creative Sense of the Principle of Life, 
seems to have appropriated merely a false sense 
of Heaven. It appears to have unhappily as- 
sumed for itself, through its many phases, a la- 
boring, suffering creative sense which it falsely 
images as Life. It is human nature alone 
which enforcedly manifests itself through the 
travail of both men and women who are ap- 
parently struggling for deliverance. This false 
creative sense has therefore become an appar- 
ently enforced creative principle, while it offers, 
as its contrast, an equally destructive essence 
within itself, from which it selfishly prays to be 
delivered. This sense is often large with a 



1 6 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

promise which seems waiting to be delivered, 
fulfilled. Such a condition is herein indicated : 
^* And she was with Child : and she crieth 
out, travailing in birth, and in pain, to be deliv- 
ered.^' 

Mary, the Bride of Heaven, the Mother of 
Christ, is symbolical of the true Creative Sense. 
Eve, on the contrary, the Wife of Adam, — Red 
Earth, — and the Mother of Cain and Abel, 
— Dual Sense, — is typical of the indolent, con- 
tradictory, and, therefore, negative construction 
of the Creative Power. 

And this latter inoperative sense suggests — 
that which it apparently presents — an opposing 
Sign in Heaven ; for all signs, whatsoever 
their import or however confusing, can appear 
only because of the true Heavenly Sense. 
Moreover, since Deity is Heaven — the Univer- 
sal — eternally, there can never be any place 
where Divinity is not the Place. 

This Sign, however, is a great Red Dragon, 
which labors under many aliases, and appears 
in all the conflicts of human sense. The Reve- 
lator says : 

** And there was seen another Sign in Heaven : 
and behold a great Red Dragon, having seven 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 17 

heads and ten horns and upon his head seven 
diadems.'' 

In this particular presentation the Dragon 
evidently represents the dogmatism of the Jew- 
ish religion, otherwise named Mosaism. The 
seven heads correspond to the evil dominion of 
the seventh-day professed religious devotion, 
with the mal-attendance of the other six days. 
The ten horns typify the oifending Ten Com- 
mandments, with their *^ Thou shalts, " which ex- 
act the futurity of obedience merely, and which 
manifest an entire absence of the Christ-love 
that desires mercy instead of sacrifice. The 
seven diadems repeated themselves in the phys- 
ical light of a sun, which itself seemed as re- 
peatedly lost in physical darkness. 

The Red Dragon may be also construed as 
Adam in the duality of Eve, which, until one 
quicken his own consciousness to the Presence 
of the Creative Principle within his thought, is 
rendered in every human thought as male and 
female, throughout the instincts of each creature. 
This duality of sense bespeaks only fear, self- 
ishness. It manifests itself throughout its crea- 
tion with an apparently enforced and propor- 
tionately restricted breath, which, through such 
reaction, results in a weak heart for man, and 



1 8 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

an agnostic dominion of that which serves him 
as sense. 

*' And his tail draweth the third part of the 
stars of Heaven, and did cast them down to 
the earth/' 

Now the tail is but the sequence of such con- 
struction as thought, — of such breathing, of 
such manifestion of the affections, of such un- 
certain rendering of Truth, — and we may, 
therefore, construe this Sequence as Conse- 
quence. The human mind, as has been said 
elsewhere, also constitutes itself a Trinity. Its 
belief in good and evil evidently enforces two- 
thirds of its thought, while the remaining third 
becomes, through mere profession, but a nega- 
tive recognition of Deity. Mind, when it is 
divided into thirds, can never result in Heaven, 
that abode of glad stars singing together in 
happy unison, and thereby, because of active res- 
olution, constituting themselves as a single 
Star, the Morning-star, — Christ. The ascrip- 
tion of evil, which human mind presents 
through this division as the positive third of it- 
self, drags humanity's conception of God down to 
an earthly consciousness, whereby it loses the 
true Consciousness of God. At least the effect is 
exactly as if it were lost, since the consequent 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation. 19 

suffering emphasizes this loss into an apparent 
fact. 

" And the Dragon stood before the Woman 
which was about to be delivered, that when she 
was delivered he might devour her Child. And 
she was delivered of a son, a man-child, who is 
to rule all the nations with a rod of iron ; and 
her Child was caught up to God, and unto His 
Throne.'' 

The Dragon, which stands before the Woman 
who is about to be delivered, is the suggestion 
which presents itself to every thought that indo- 
lently waits for deliverance. It existed just as 
much before Time appeared — ** before the 
foundation of the world " — as it does now, 
since it certainly has no real power to-day. If 
the Thought of Divinity could prove itself to be 
less than fully active, the suggestion would then 
present itself through the not wholly occupied 
— not absolutely occupied — thought, since sug- 
gestion will arise in the partially active thought 
only. All human thought seems to be partly 
filled ; otherwise, it could neither respond to nor 
offer suggestion, since thought — or, rather, 
that which is called thought — never receives 
that which it is not equally ready to offer, 
though often from the subconscious instead of 



20 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

from the present plane of consciousness. Ob- 
viously, the indolent one who furnishes the ear 
for the tempting word is just as evil as the 
wicked one who speaks it, since hearing and 
speech are a unit in expression, the ear and the 
word always presenting themselves together. 

Judaism had merely suggested a Messiah who 
would lead the Chosen People into the Prom- 
ised Land. But the virgin thought of Mary 
heard with the Creative Sense alone, and, when 
responding to the Christ, there was in her no at- 
tending affirmation of doctrine with its conse- 
quent denial of the Absolute. While pregnant 
with the Holy Word, Mary bound the Child 
neither by creeds nor forms. Indeed, she could 
not thus have bound him, since he was forever 
delivered — free — in his own Concept of Life, 
in which ** I and the Father are One.'' He was 
as much delivered before Mary saw him in 
Bethlehem as when the Wise Men, following 
the guidance of the Star, found him reposing in 
her arms in the lowly manger. 

From the Beginning — the real Beginning — 
Jesus had known himself solely as the Son of 
God, although, during the days of his ministry 
here, he did but name himself, in like manner 
as to Nicodemus, *^the Son of Man which is in 
Heaven/' But when the chief priests and 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelatio7i, 2 1 

scribes put to him the question, ** Art thou then 
tbe Son of God? '' they were but unwillingly re- 
sponding to the knowledge within themselves, 
which they had also received from him. There- 
fore his answer: ^*Ye say that I am!'* When 
Jesus announced himself as the Son of Man, 
he well knew that every Son of Man, whatso- 
ever this Son's own ascription of Self might 
be, was also the Son of God forevermore. 
Otherwise, Jesus could not have enlightened 
man at all, and his mission, accordingly, would 
have been a fruitless one. 

Furthermore, he had said to Nicodemus, 
" And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the 
Wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be 
lifted up." Yet Moses' methods of dealing 
with man were the reverse of the Master's. 
From the inner craft of human nature Moses 
sought for power with which to govern the sim- 
ple Israelites. Moreover, he offered to them 
only that which they apparently exacted from 
him. 

Jesus called upon no external force in order 
to delude men, nor did he seek to involve them 
in the apparent forces within themselves. He 
was indeed ^* lifted up " from the moment when 
he began his ministrations, which were assur- 
edly " before the foundation of the world." 



2 2 The Tzuelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

Which would prove the greatest demonstration of 
all, whether it were the inculcating of the proph- 
ets with the Divinity of his own Presence through 
the previous ages, the impregnating of Mary's 
thought, the delivering of himself to the human 
sight of man, the transfiguring of the Disciples, 
Or the crucifying and resurrecting scenes, in or- 
der that no possible lesson should be neglected 
for the fuller teaching of the race, who can say ? 
The one who understands something of the 
Master's efforts, from his own self-withheld at- 
tempts at ministry, perhaps would be inclined 
to feel that the daily living of human intimacy 
would have been to Jesus the effort over which 
he would have necessarily labored in order to 
preserve the poise of Divinity. When the view- 
point, however, is that of Truth, one quickly 
realizes that, in the simplicity of His nature, 
Jesus ever lived the Absolute Life and thus per- 
mitted no temptation of human governance to as- 
sail him. His Disciples might rouse him from 
his own in-visible occupation to share their 
fears, but he was always master of himself, 
and, consequently, of whatever they or human- 
ity presented to him. 

Nevertheless, the devouring of this man-child 
would have been the same consuming which had 
overtaken all the children of men heretofore, — 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 23 

an absorption into pride, envy, lasciviousness, 
godlessness, self-love, and all uncharitableness. 
The gathering of this Child of Heaven, however, 
consisted in His own continued absorption of the 
Power of the Throne, and His whole-hearted ap- 
plication of this Power for the good of all others, 
including those who were waiting for their deliv- 
erance through Time's slow processes alone. 

Jesus Christ typifies Divinity, — God, — and 
this Child, who is to ** rule the nations with a rod 
of iron," is Christ, the Absolute One, the mani- 
festation of unswerving Truth — indeed, is Truth 
itself. The ^' rod of iron " manifests itself in the 
all-embracing Love of the Holy Spirit, which cre- 
ates the Father and the Son One in the firmness 
and irrefragability of the Divine Unity. No 
human power can set aside this rule, and, amid 
all the exactions of an evidently contrary power, 
this authority is ever to be felt. For the one 
who agrees with it, thereby making it his own 
government, it is " the Peace of God which pass- 
eth all understanding," since it comprises ^//Un- 
derstanding, and he then absolutely knows the 
Authority of Life to be Life itself — his own 
Being. 

While there seems to be a fearful unity in the 
broken thirds of the human trinity, yet we have 
only the Heavenly Result of the Creative Percep- 



2 4 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation. 

tion, of which this Woman is the symbol, in her 
Child, who is therefore conceived and delivered 
in the true Concept of the Creative Sense, since 
he is at 07ice caught up to God and unto His 
Throne. Because of being God-gathered, he 
himself would also naturally possess the Power 
of the Throne. 

" And the Woman fled into the Wilderness, 
where she hath a place prepared of God, that 
there they may nourish her a thousand two hun- 
dred and threescore days." 

" Wilderness " here undoubtedly signifies the 
real In-visible Sense, — the Sight within real 
Thought. It was through this same Wilderness 
that the Spirit led Jesus, in which, also, the Devil 
suggested to him every temptation. 

But the human wilderness is not, and never 
will be, the abiding-place of Christ. That antici- 
pation which looks to the second coming of 
Christ to humanity for its own fulfillment is cer- 
tainly a fruitless one. Man should at once real- 
ize the Presence of Christ now in the Divinity of 
his own Nature, which will be the only real visita- 
tion of Christ to him here, or ever. To the Di- 
vinity of Nature alone was Jesus* ear attuned, 
and the tempting suggestion of human power that 
should be granted him if he would but yield 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelatmi, 25 

himself to its supremacy found no responding 
guile in him within which to plant its flattering 
promise. The Dragon's word was not even 
heard by him. 

The Disciples, however, saw the apparent re- 
spect of the Jews for their Master. The chief 
priests and scribes were willing to accord to him 
the power and place of a prophet, but they them- 
selves were not yet ready to submit to a Mes- 
siah — to the Messiah within themselves. They 
would have gladly grouped him with Elijah, 
Isaiah, Ezekiel, Ezra, Zechariah, and the host of 
prophets which had preceded him, according to 
their acceptance of his Power, but he had come 
to fulfill the Law, not to promise the further suf- 
ferance of the Almighty. He had voiced him- 
self through those same prophets, so far as they, 
through the limitations of their own making and 
those of their contemporaries, would permit. He 
had now come for the purpose of both speaking 
and acting the Word, which so far had been de- 
nied. It was his last presentation to the Sons of 
Man, but it was to be all-sufficient. He would 
now fulfill all that had been promised for him. 

Now the twelve hundred and sixty days of the 
Revelator probably equal the time of Jesus' ac- 
knowledged ministry here, which is believed to 



26 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

have covered between three and four years. The 
year then regularly contained three hundred and 
sixty days, with the exception that to every sixth 
year another lunar month was added. The Wom- 
an who fled into the Wilderness would equally 
represent Jesus or Mary. The Creative Princi- 
ple occupied each of them wholly. The one 
realized this fully ; the other knew it also. I feel 
assured that the Creative Perception was fully 
expressed by Mary, while the Roman Catholic 
Church ascribes to her an equal understanding, 
if not an equal power, with Jesus. 

Nevertheless, it should be said here that the 
figure of the Woman, with her feet upon the 
moon, is a very old one, coming as it does from 
the Egyptian. The picture which we know of 
the Madonna, large with the Child, and with the 
crescent moon beneath her feet, was prefigured 
by the Egyptian I sis with the infant Horus in 
her arms, while her feet were likewise planted on 
the crescent moon. Soma, also, has been forced 
to a subjective position by the Hindu will, and 
Soma-juice is not considered a desirable potion 
by the intellectual Brahmin, with its apparently 
assured results of lunacy. The knowledge of 
this prefiguring of symbols, however, does not 
move the Truth from its eternal steadfastness, 
nor render the individuality and teaching of 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 27 

Jesus any the less divine. It only goes to prove 
that the symbols used by the Master, and, later, 
by the Disciples, were those to which men were 
accustomed. More than this, it serves to show 
that the Word was not delivered by him in the 
midst of exclusively Judaic superstition, but was 
presented to that consciousness of Truth in men 
which pertained equally to all men and all races. 

" And there was war in Heaven : Michael and 
his angels going forth to war with the Dragon ; 
and the Dragon warred, and his angels ; and 
they prevailed not, neither was their place found 
any more in Heaven." 

According to the Revelator, we may observe 
that the Dragon was not consciously within the 
Heavenly Sense of Michael. Nevertheless, John 
reveals Michael as corresponding to the Christ- 
spirit within man, and also as the Power which 
really effaces the Dragon, — the contradictory- 
spirit within him, — quickening, as does the 
Christ-consciousness, the thought of man into 
the wholeness and holiness of his real mentality. 
Then not a shadow of the fear which has been 
cast by man's own indolence remains, for he now 
stands in the clear Light, and thus revealed to 
himself. 



28 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation. 

Many of the Old Testament writings are pro- 
fessedly apocalyptic. The writing of Daniel is 
notably so ; as also are the writings of Isaiah and 
Ezekiel ; and, in like manner, may those of the 
minor prophets be construed. 

Michael is the archangel of Daniel. Gabriel 
*' represents the ministration of the angels to- 
ward men, while Michael is the type and leader 
of their strifes in God's Name, and in His 
strength against the power of Satan. In the 
Old Testament, therefore, he is the guardian of 
the Jewish principles in their antagonism to 
godless power and heathenism." In the New 
Testament, in both Jude's and Peter's Epistles, 
it is given that ** Michael, the archangel, when 
contending with the devil, who disputed con- 
cerning the body of Moses, durst not bring 
against him a railing accusation, but said, *The 
Lord rebuke thee.' " The same compiler says 
further that this allusion is believed to refer to 
a Jewish legend, which was attached to Deut. 
34:6; and, also, that the Targum of Jonathan 
ascribes the burial of Moses to the angels of 
God, but especially to the Archangel Michael as 
the guardian of Israel. Later traditions, how- 
ever, set forth how strenuously Satan disputed 
the burial of Moses, claiming for himself the 
dead body, because of the blood of the Egyp- 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 29 

tian which was on Moses' hands. This is the 
Biblical record of the event : — 

** And it came to pass in those days, when 
Moses was grown up, that he went out unto his 
brethren, and looked on their burdens ; and he 
saw an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his 
brethren, and he looked on this way and that 
way, and when he saw that there was no man, 
he smote the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. 
And he went out the second day, and, behold, 
two men of the Hebrews strove together, and 
he said to him that did the wrong, * Wherefore 
smitest thou thy fellow ? ' And he said, * Who 
made thee a prince and a judge over us ? Think- 
est thou to kill us as thou killedst the Egyptian ?' 
And Moses feared, and said, ' Surely the thing 
is known/ Now when Pharaoh heard these 
things he sought to slay Moses. And Moses 
fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the 
Land of Midian ; and he sat down by a well." 

And this was the apparent foundation of the 
Moral Law. The allusions of the Disciples 
show that they were generally informed, and 
also that, if they had previously been governed 
by racial hypotheses, they were no longer thus 
controlled. 

The reply of Michael, to which both Peter 



30 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

and Jude refer, is probably taken from Zech. 3:1, 
when Satan, standing at Joshua's right hand, 
whose arraying of thought was filthy because of 
his iniquity, heard Jehovah, or the Angel of 
God, say, ** The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan ; 
yea, the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem re- 
buke thee ; is not this a brand plucked out of 
the fire ? '' And while Joshua thus stood, in his 
iniquitous raiment, before the Angel, the Angel 
said to those who likewise stood before him, 
" Take the filthy garments from him ; '' while to 
Joshua, he said, ** Behold I have caused thine 
iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee 
with rich apparel ; '' which proved that the An- 
gel could speak with Absolute Authority when 
administering Truth to another. 

The Spirit of the Angel's answer to Satan leaves 
all punishment to the In-visible Sense of man, 
which is also the spirit of John's allusion. It is 
likewise the spirit of the other Disciples' quota- 
tions. Various Jewish traditions present Michael 
as contending against Sammael, the accuser and 
enemy of Israel. By them it is held that Michael 
brought the lamb for Isaac which Sammael 
sought to keep back. 

The titles accorded Michael by tradition were 
those which were also given to the Messiah by 
the prophets. He was the ''Great High Priest 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 31 

of Heaven/' "Prince," and "Conqueror." Yet 
it is evident that the attributes ascribed to the 
Angel were intended to represent solely the Di- 
vine Power which the Anointed One would 
surely manifest. 

" And the great Dragon was cast down, the 
old Serpent, he that is called the Devil and Sa- 
tan, the Deceiver of the whole world ; he was 
cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast 
down with him." 

Perhaps we have already learned that this 
Dragon is but the discordant unity of that which 
should be manifested through the creation as 
Real Thought, but which, instead, indolently 
proves itself to be the sole tempter in what other- 
wise would be now the Garden of Eden. Be- 
cause of this inertia of the creation. True 
Thought has become with it merely an indolent 
consciousness, dejected and unhappy, in which 
the breath of man seeks to force its way through 
channels that are apparently closed by wasted 
efforts ; and in which the sanity of man appears 
to be lost in various manias. Thus this apparent 
consciousness becomes despair, and " is cast 
down to the earth," until it seems to itself a 
veritable " bed in hell." 



32 The Tzvelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

But John, the Angel, continues : " And I 
heard a great voice in Heaven saying, * Now is 
come the salvation, and the power, and the king- 
dom of our God, and the authority of His Christ : 
for the accuser of our Brethren .is cast down, 
which accuseth them before our God day and 
night/ " This evidently refers to the fall of Jeru- 
salem. He continues : "• ' And they overcame him 
because of the Blood of the Lamb, and because 
of the Word of their testimony ; and they loved 
not their life even unto death/ '' 

Undoubtedly John intended to cover every- 
thing humanly eventuating in the past, present, 
and future, which certainly can be done quickly 
by the clear-eyed seer. Being wholly true to the 
Christ-principle, however, he accordingly well 
knew the Truth concerning Life, and never di- 
gressed from its revealing ; yet he also un- 
covered human mentality with its fearful results. 

*' Our Brother " doubtless refers to him who 
bore the eternal Brotherhood of Man in his own 
heart, who had so recently given all that he had 
to give, as he also had always given it, and as 
he likewise will forever give it, for the universal 
good of men. The Blood of Christ had been 
freely offered by him from the beginning of his 
ministry, it being Jesus' Absolute Conception of 
Life. 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation. 33 

The living of the Disciples, also, was, to all 
intent, despite either their personal disagree- 
ments or their diverse wanderings, in the One 
Life, which they endeavored to keep clean and 
practical in the Blood of the Lamb, — the Divin- 
ity of Concept. Moreover, they had fearlessly 
borne their testimony, accounting Life alone ; 
therefore, they were not possessed by the terror 
of human consequences, and so *^ loved not their 
life even unto death.'' They knew the Presence 
which stayed salvation, power, and the kingdom 
of God within them ; therefore, because of this, 
they were unafraid. 

The first Accuser mentioned is the enemy of 
Truth, Judaism, indifference, indolence, however 
its effort, or lack of effort, manifests the foe. 
This Accuser is as old as the Ages of Time — 
indeed, is Time itself, since there should be for 
one nothing save the Presence in the Moment, 
which would then render Life complete for him. 
He should have no thought unemployed in the 
true service, through which suggestion can offer 
a faithless memory of yesterdays, misspent, or 
an anticipation or a foreboding of morrows. 

But the second Accuser, "which accuseth 
them before our God day and night,'' is the neg- 
lected, In-visible Perception of man, whose very 
silence seems to become a clamoring conscience, 



34 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation. 

which all the casuistry of man does not prevent 
from coming to his ears, whereby his heart is 
weakened, while his thus restricted blood seeks 
to filter itself through obstructed mazes, which 
would, instead, happily name themselves chan- 
nels of the True Mind. The channels of this 
Mind forever constitute the Heavenly Way of 
Right-thinking, with all its openness, in which 
there is neither day nor night, except the Ever- 
lasting Day of the Present Moment. 

" ^ Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and ye that 
dwell in them. Woe for the earth and for the 
sea : because the Devil is gone down unto you, 
having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a 
short time.' " 

Possibly John believed that the end of human 
sense would speedily come, but, while it is 
merely possible, it is scarcely likely that he 
had such a hope to cheer him in his efforts. 
Moreover, he no longer needed hope for his own 
further encouragement . Every step of the way 
through which he sought to quicken men could 
have been accounted at the expense of human 
sacrifice by him, had he been personally in- 
clined. Yet it may be observed how little any 
one of the New Testament writers, with the 
single exception of Paul, considers suffering 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 35 

either for Jesus or for himself. Indeed, it may be 
noted how very little human sympathy is mani- 
fested by the Gospel writers in their narration 
of the Crucifixion scenes. They understood so 
well the purport and power of God's Anointed 
that they themselves were already endeavoring 
to cover with their compassion the infinite range 
of his expression of Life. 

In his later writings, John presents little that 
could be ascribed to him as merely personal re- 
membrance. Certainly his affirmation of Truth 
through his own experience could not be thus 
defined. This alone would prove his efforts to 
have been made in the Spirit of Absolute Love, 
since they had resulted in his own understanding 
of the individuality of the Unit within him. He 
was no longer tempted to call down fire from 
Heaven upon those who would not accept the 
truth of his teaching at once. He had already 
learned that each creature could successfully 
avenge its self imposed wrongs in the Single Way 
alone, — that in which the false sense of Self is 
wholly effaced. 

Still, he was the faithful prophet, delivering 
his message to men, although he had to fulfill 
Heaven for himself while uttering its Word to 
others. Like Paul, the doom of the castaway 
presented no suggestion of attraction to him, 



36 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

and consequently it did not tempt him to a false 
regard for himself or another. He knew, how- 
ever, that the fear of this Dragon-mind in the 
creature would hold death continually before it, 
while it allowed apparent conditions to usurp the 
State of the True Mind. Only in connection 
with his teaching did John question Time. 
Otherwise, it was never considered by him. 
Obviously, however, the fancied doom was ade- 
quately covered by the prophecy of the ** short 
time," in which man will continue to have his 
being, until he realizes the absolute fulfillment 
of all Being in himself now, 

** And when the Dragon saw that he was cast 
down to the earth, he persecuted the Woman 
which brought forth the man-child." 

Now this does not specifically refer to Mary, — 
to the Divinely Creative Sense, — but it seems 
rather to apply itself to Eve, — the fancied per- 
version of the Creative Sense. This fancy, how- 
ever, is assuredly suggesting the real Creative 
Power, even while denying it ; and, too, difficult 
of comprehension as it may seem to one, de- 
spite the indolent and consequently negative 
position into which the false creative sense seems 
to be forced by itself, suflfering all the while 
through its affections, — male and female. None 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation. 37 

the less, peace and content ever seem to abide 
within its possibilities, — although perhaps re- 
motely, — yet, because of its sluggishness, it fails 
to arouse itself from the spell into which, by its 
own negative rendering of Life, it is evidently 
cast, this negative rendering thereby polarizing 
the spell into extremes. Therefore the Truth 
within this counterfeit of the Creative Sense, 
because this counterfeit cannot separate itself 
from the True, apparently becomes the warring 
Michael, while its own fatal duality urges on a 
continuing conflict of sense. 

^* And there were given to the Woman the two 
wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into 
the Wilderness unto her place, where she is 
nourished for a time and times and half a time 
from the face of the Serpent,'' 

The eagle is the strong thought, sometimes 
the fierce thought, and often the cruel thought. 
With its two wings it may either exalt or debase 
itself in this Wilderness, which may express 
Absolute Truth to one, or suggest to him — as 
humanity — the apparently fatal lie. And in 
this Wilderness — the In-visible Sense — this 
dual thought, as male and female, is nourished 
for these twelve hundred and sixty days, which 
" the time and times and half a time " represent. 



38 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

The three and one-half years of Jesus' ministry 
were positively typical of all Time, embracing 
as they did the extremity of human anguish, as 
well as the perfect result, and, therefore, all con- 
tent. It was the Garden of Gethsemane ; yet it 
is true that it included the real Garden, Eden, — 
Paradise, — since it both embraced and radiated 
the Poise of Mind in Christ. And while Time is 
a negation merely, yet those years of Jesus' 
ministry were positive in their relation to Time 
because of his own absoluteness. 

Nevertheless, while Time apparently enforces 
a dreary sense of Being through man, — that is, 
while he continues his own journeying through 
a false conception of Consciousness, — he will 
seek for his nourishment from the face of the 
Serpent, chiefly." Cunning and diplomacy will 
seem essential to the success of one who ob- 
serves Life from such a point of view, and 
scheming and planning will continue to involve 
him in an apparent underworld maze of exist- 
ence, since he will not arouse himself sufficiently 
to render Life as it really is through the direct- 
ness of singleness of purpose and result. He 
thus continues to regard a wary diplomacy on his 
part as generally necessary in his dealings with 
the rest of the race, while often importuning 
that which he names the Heavenly Throne with 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 39 

the same tentative diplomacy. By such means 
his own thought is wholly given over to tergi- 
versation. 

As has been said, John included past, pres- 
ent, and future in his Revelation, thereby cov- 
ering every circumstance and condition of hu- 
man life with his prophetic defining of symbols, 
which were in this manner but humanly inter- 
preted. Moreover, each individual may admon- 
ish himself, if he choose, that they will all repeat 
their interpretation in him humanly, unless he 
perceive absolutely for himself the single Sign 
of Life fulfilled in the Woman as the Creative 
Perception which entirely occupied Heaven, 
being wholly arrayed in its Light. 

**And the Serpent cast out of his mouth 
water as a river, that he might cause her to be 
carried away by the stream.'' 

This is not always the result of a consciously 
inimical feeling toward the creature, — of one 
creature toward another, — but it is evidently 
universal instead, because violence apparently 
becomes the habitual effect of the inactive con- 
struing of Nature by Man as a whole, the result 
of this always seeming to be a polarized na- 
ture in him. This assumed nature again polar- 
izes itself in man, because of its necessities, into 



40 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

a faith which is also negative, and consequently 
a denial of God. From this assumption, as 
Faith, often proceed the selfish prayers of 
men. 

In accordance with such a misconception of 
Life, the Blood of this Woman becomes a coag- 
ulating fluid, instead of the Living Flow, — the 
glad Fluency of Divinity, — while the ebb and 
flow are equally dangerous to this indetermin- 
ate construction of the Creative Power. 

** And the earth helped the Woman, and the 
earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the 
River which the Dragon cast out of hio 
mouth.'' 

Out of the Dragon's mouth proceeds the false 
word, the word that is not of God — not of 
Life. The True Word expresses itself as the 
River of Life, the fluency of which eternally 
manifests itself through the length and breadth 
of Thought. The false word, perforce, appeared 
as the River of Death, with its contrary flow 
which no man could stay, but which each urged 
farther in its extremes, consciously or uncon- 
sciously. Each also apparently sowed in that 
River's bed that which seemed germs for propa- 
gation, but which he rarely waited to perfect, 
thereby leaving those germs, as thoughts not 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 41 

fully fructified, to misrule and subsequent efflo- 
rescence, instead of endowing them with the 
present inflorescence of Spirit. 

Although this word is not of God, yet it could 
not have an apparent existence without the un- 
derlying True Word, which it often seeks to 
counterfeit with its misleading promises, thereby 
veiling its real intention, thus to become the 
Deceiver of the race. Therefore the individual 
defining it is not always wholly aware of his 
own purpose, because of his ignorance or indif- 
ference, a condition which certainly does not 
offer a valid excuse for him. 

Nevertheless, this false word of the Dragon- 
mind, ignoble though it be, still has God for its 
very foundation. Without the utterance of God 
through the True Word, there would be neither 
strength nor intelligence for this counterfeiting 
of even Life itself, and, consequently, there 
would be no power with which to enforce a con- 
tradictory claim of thought, of speech. This 
claim, however, bears consciously the impress 
only of God, the mark which preserved Cain, 
apparently to continued suffering, but also to 
the redemption of his own thought. But this 
assumption proves itself not to be of God, since 
it does not acknowledge Him absolutely, or, if it 
do admit Him as a power, yet by its contradic- 



42 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation. 

tory admission, tacit or otherwise, of His impo- 
tence, it thereby practically denies Him. 

Hence, this false word continues to work 
against itself. More than this, everywhere its 
external sense seems at variance with its 
founder, the Dragon-mind. The objective man- 
ifestly refuses to be in harmony with its suggest- 
ively subjective sense. Despite seeming ap- 
pearances, however, it is quite true that nothing 
but good can come from the earth or from man. 
This is the result because of the true Percep- 
tion, forever abiding within the creature, which 
continues creative notwithstanding its own de- 
structive phases of adverse thought. 

The earth may swallow the Woman, — Crea- 
tive Sense, — but this Perception is still Abso- 
lute, and, accordingly, strong within her, — male 
or female, — and Life is happily eternal in each 
of its manifestations. 

The earth may also swallow the River of 
Death. It may seek to fill the channels of 
thought with pleasurable suggestions or un- 
happy fancies, while encroaching further and 
still further upon this mortal rendering of Life, 
thereby choking all vitality out of the creature, 
so far as that which it deems its consciousness 
is concerned. This offspring of God alone may 
gladly or sorrowfully surrender itself to its own 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation. 43 

fears, and to the seeming evil of a phase, only 
to find that this identical sense of earth has 
swallowed the River of Fear, as also that the 
Creative Sense within it has evidently rebuilt it 
for another effort — another cycle as Life. 

Thus does the earth help the Woman, — Cre- 
ative Sense, — thereby falsely establishing itself, 
while it continues to utter the deceiving word in 
lieu of Life. 

Again be it said that, according to the Reve- 
lator, this Woman, who is arrayed with the Sun, 
the Absolute Consciousness of Life, is Heaven, 
the Creative Principle of the Absolute — the 
true Creative Power which irradiates each crea- 
ture. If this be manifested by the creature in 
each thought and act of the moment, it will 
know this manifestation to be its everlasting 
conservation, the Resurrection of Life unto Life 
in it, and, furthermore, through it to all. 

John teaches us that, despite circumstances 
and the human appearance of Life to those 
about us, the Creative Perception abides in its 
eternal wholeness and fitness in each. He 
shows man plainly that the earth can merely 
claim that which apparently pertains to it, which 
is, after all, — both earth and pertaining things, 
— but a shadow that the real Light dissipates. 



44 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

" And the Dragon waxed wroth with the Wom- 
an, and went away to make war with the rest 
of her seed, which keep the commandment of 
God, and hold the testimony of Jesus." 

Undoubtedly this refers to the consequent 
struggle and the ensuing suffering of those who 
followed the Christ and bore faithful witness to 
the Absolute. It would equally refer either to 
those who are apostates from the Church or to 
those who are considered so by others. Yet 
those who are seeking to administer forcible 
punishment to others w^hom they deem outside 
the fold of the Church, while they esteem them- 
selves within its sacred precinct, themselves are 
far, far outside its embracing Love. 

All the pride which possessed John when he 
wrote the Gospel was now obliterated, and we 
here observe only the sanity and impersonality 
of one who has undoubtedly learned his lesson 
from his own practical administration of Self. 
In his Gospel he had rather enforced the as- 
cription of being the best-beloved of the Master. 
He manifested beyond dispute that he both 
loved and understood the Master better than 
the other Disciples, but that which he loved in 
Christ was assuredly all there was that Jesus 
ever offered to man, — the Absolute of Nature, 



v^ 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 45 

the Whole Perception of Life, his Unity with 
God, and, in like manner, with the Universe. 

The symbols which John uses in his descrip- 
tive revealing, though often apparently physical, 
are impersonal, except as the action requires the 
mention of Jesus or himself. The scorpions, 
beasts, and various manifestations of the false 
word are thus evidently a unit with the Dragon, 
— the output of the Dragon, as it were, — while 
the Woman and the angels are equally a unit. 
It should be remembered accordingly that this 
Woman represents the Absolute Creativeness of 
Power, spotless and undefiled, whose offspring, 
in its universality, is '' caught up to God " eter- 
nally, even " unto His Throne " forevermore. 

Beasts evidently symbolize the opposing crea- 
tures, the offspring of the Dragon, — the mani- 
festly contradictory sense, — which do but repre- 
sent human characteristics, after all, out of which 
come all the harrowing circumstances of one who 
allows himself such an objective view. More- 
over, whosoever accepts or maintains such a view- 
point for himself thereby renders himself the 
subjective government of that which, sooner or 
later, will prove itself uncomfortable, or worse 
for him, since he himself is subjected to the same 
misrule. 



%H , 



46 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation, 

" And he stood upon the sands of the sea." 
This unstable position is occupied by human 
mind to-day. So it has ever been ; thus it shall 
ever be, until the creature fulfills its own Con- 
cept of Being from the true Creative Sense. This 
Perception is the Source of all Being. It is the 
Sole Creator of the Universe, which each crea- 
ture of God should wholly image for itself, there- 
by becoming the real Image of Deity, the sole 
creator of its own thought, and alone responsible 
to itself for all that is. 

Any interested reader of The Revelation will 
have observed for himself that John has carried 
therein the number Twelve through various ren- 
derings, and he will also have perceived the man- 
ifest unity, even though he do not understand the 
symbols chosen, or cannot follow such constru- 
ing of them. That John should have selected, or 
rather ordained, this Twelfth Chapter for its 
ministry of interpreting the Universal, which has 
perhaps been more widely questioned than all the 
other chapters, will only further prove the har- 
mony of his whole arrangement. 

One who feels the infinite reach of the inter- 
pretation of Life through John's reverential 
thought will also be touched by his construction 
of Christ as the Woman who, if it be humanly 



The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation. 47 

considered, through much travail gave birth to 
that which, if it were lived by all, would quicken 
the Universal in each creature. One can also 
perceive in the Twelve Stars shining in that 
Crown the reflected understanding of the Twelve 
Disciples through the Master's loving, glorified 
expression. Not even Judas was denied his 
service under the Christ-authority by the faithful 
John. Moreover, from his own illumination, af- 
fairs stood in their proper Light, and he under- 
stood now that only the rule of Christ had been 
carried into effect. The previously frequent 
stumbling of the Twelve, if it were accounted at 
all, would have been in the equahty of sin, and 
not according to its degree. But this stumbling 
and the crown of thorns — even the remembrance 
of all tribulation — were obliterated. The Night 
of Gethsemane had transfigured itself into the 
Woman, who was arrayed with the Sun, and who 
also wore eternally her Crown of Twelve Stars. 
While the memories of humanity shall urge their 
various claims, this figure shall remain. 

The Master's teaching to those simple Breth- 
ren, in the valleys or upon the hills of Palestine, 
upon the turbulent sea or in the dreary Garden 
of that which might have been human wretched- 
ness but for the divinity of his purpose, will ever 
remain the perfect lesson for man — to be learned 



48 The Twelfth Chapter of the Revelation. 

by him, however, only through his own steadfast- 
ness of purpose. Then the centuries vanish, 
and, in their stead, the Present Moment becomes 
the full revealment with which this Christ, arrayed 
with the Sun, irradiates the Twelve and, accord- 
ingly, the whole Brotherhood of Man. Aye, 
more, if more were possible, the Father and the 
Son are revealed throughout the Universal, and, 
consequently, there is no longer any suggestion 
of divergence, or digression, in its Soul. 






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